Mayor of Moscow Cup

CSKA took a clear lead in the Mayor of Moscow Cup after the Army Men's narrow victory over Vityaz was followed by a surprise triumph by Spartak over fierce crosstown rivals Dynamo, which went some way toward easing the pain of the Red-and-Whites' derby defeat at the hands of CSKA in the first game.

“We were good in the first period and for half of the second, but in the third we were forced to defend and Johansson in goal helped us hang onto the victory. Tomorrow we'll try Alexei Marchenko. He has had no match practice, but he has been training well.”

Vityaz head coach Valery Belov:

“We had a bad spell early in the second period, but we did well in the third. On the whole, I'm satisfied with the way the team played, including Misha Biryukov in goal.”

“We failed completely in the second period. We know what happened – we were just poor at killing penalties. After the second period, we talked to the guys and they showed character to get back in the game, but a game lasts 60 minutes and you have to play well from start to finish.”

Spartak head coach Vadim Yepanchintsev:

“It was a good, competitive game. I'm happy with the way my team performed, with the exception, perhaps, of the first period. In the second, we regrouped and started to win the battles for possession, we made use of our power plays, and we scored. Toward the end we started trying to just hold on to the lead, and our opponents punished us for it, but I'm glad we kept going to the very end. We earned this win.”

Viktor Blinov Memorial Tournament

It was a bad day for Ugra, who recorded a third defeat from three games at the Viktor Blinov Memorial Tournament, this time to Amur. In the earlier game, Barys suffered a first-period blitz from Avtomobilist, who hit three unanswered goals. The Astana Men recovered sufficiently to get on the scoreboard, but the Yekaterinburg Men's victory never looked in doubt.

Avtomobilist (Yekaterinburg) vs. Barys (Astana): 3-1 (3-0, 0-1, 0-0)

Barys Astana head coach Evgeny Koreshkov:

“It is the second game in a row in which team played very well for two periods, but very slack in one, but that is to be expected in the preseason. We'll do some fine-tuning and fix it.” (courtesy of HC Barys press service)

Nikolai Puchkov memorial tournament.

The Saint Petersburg tournament enjoyed its grand finale today with the playoffs for fifth, third, and first place. The host and Gagarin Cup champion took the gold with an emphatic win over Jokerit, while Team Canada brushed aside SKA-Neva to take the bronze and Severstal edged HC Sochi for fifth place.

Latvian Railways Cup

This tournament in Riga also came to a close today, and as in Saint Petersburg it was the pre-tournament favorites who emerged triumphant. Lokomotiv has had a highly impressive preseason, despite lending many of its finest players to Team Russia and Team Canada pre-Olympic rosters, and the Railwaymen wrapped up victory in the Latvian Railways Cup with a 3-0 win over the hosts.

Dinamo (Minsk) vs. Ak Bars (Kazan): 2-3 OT (1-0, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1)

In the battle for third place, a double from Justin Azevedo helped Ak Bars claim an overtime win over the men from Minsk.

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KHL.ru is the official Web site of the Kontinental Hockey League. All KHL logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the KHL and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of KHL, ltd